Media Anthropology Workshop bei der 10. EASA Konferenz, 26.-30. Aug., Ljubljana, Slovenia

Auch wenn Papers nur von EASA (European Association of Social Anthropologists) Mitgliedern eingereicht werden können, ist die Information trotzdem interessant:

Workshop: MEDIA,TECHNOLOGY, AND KNOWLEDGE CULTURES: ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ISSUES OF DIVERSITY, MUTUALITY AND EXCLUSION

Convenors:
Cora Bender (University of Bremen)
Ian Dent (University of Cambridge)
Discussant:
Dorle Dracklé (University of Bremen)

Abstract

In the recent years, many scholars in the field of media anthropology have pointed out the necessity to study media as technology, in order to further decenter the textual content of media in favor of their social context. However, what do we mean by technology? This workshop intends to inspire the reception of recent debates in anthropology and related neighboring disciplines which have expanded the perspectives on technology vastly. Science and technology studies, material culture studies, ecology and environmentalism, medical anthropology, and anthropological studies of cyberspace and technoscience, contribute to a much better understanding of technologies not only as sets of material devices, but as complex, negotiated arrangements of agents, social practices, cultural imaginations, and circulating things. Abandoning older ‘ballistic’ concepts of technologies as physical tools having an ‘impact’ on cultures, research into the dynamics of technoscience suggests that much of what constitutes technology in a given situation is the outcome of politically interested media discourse producing models of diversity, mutuality and exclusion…

Mehr auf: http://media-anthropology.net/events.htm

open-access is the future?

in the spirit of the recent AOIR mailing list discussion (see links) on open-access vs. locked-down academic journals i highly recommend two famous – and interesting! – open access journals in „the field“ (whatever this may mean!?):

journal of computer-mediated communication (JCMC): http://jcmc.indiana.edu/

first monday: http://www.firstmonday.dk/

- both of them are peer-reviewed, read and cited as far as i know! maybe a first step towards the future…

Habermas blows off question about the Internet and the Public Sphere

By Howard Rheingold:

I recently asked Jurgen Habermas in a public forum what his current opinion is about the state of the public sphere, now that the broadcast era has been supplanted by the many-to-many media that enable so many people to use the Internet as a means of political expression. He blew off the question without explanation, and a little further investigation into the very sparse pronouncements he has made in this regard has led me to understand that he simply does not understand the Internet. His ideas about the relationship between public opinion and democracy and the role of communication media, and the commodification and manipulation of political opinion via public relations, are still vitally important. But I think it’s important now to build new theories and not simply to rely on Habermas, who is signalling his ignorance of the meaning of the changes in the infosphere that have taken place in recent decades. He did his part in his time, but the ideal public sphere he described — a bourgeois public sphere dominated by broadcast media — should not be taken as the model for the formation of public opinion in 21st century democracies. Some background on my interest in this subject and Habermas’ personal opinion follows. And then I’ll briefly describe my recent encounter with the man himself.

more…

Sociology and, of and in Web 2.0: Some Initial Considerations

eine Zusammenfassung und Übersicht über Grundbegriffe und grundlegende Fragestellungen findet sich in dem Beitrag von David Beer and Roger Burrows (University of York; York St John University) online abrufbar auf Sociological Research Online, Volume 12, Issue 5, .

Abstract:

This paper introduces the idea of Web 2.0 to a sociological audience as a key example of a process of cultural digitization that is moving faster than our ability to analyse it. It offers a definition, a schematic overview and a typology of the notion as part of a commitment to a renewal of description in sociology. It provides examples of wikis, folksonomies, mashups and social networking sites and, where possible and by way of illustration, examines instances where sociology and sociologists are featured. The paper then identifies three possible agendas for the development of a viable sociology of Web 2.0: the changing relations between the production and consumption of internet content; the mainstreaming of private information posted to the public domain; and, the emergence of a new rhetoric of ‘democratisation’. The paper concludes by discussing some of the ways in which we can engage with these new web applications and go about developing sociological understandings of the new online cultures as they become increasingly significant in the mundane routines of everyday life.

AoIR Conference – Call for Papers Extended!

Call for Papers
* Submission deadline for papers and panels extended to Friday, February 22nd. *

the theme for the Internet Research 9.0 conference is Rethinking Community, Rethinking Place, but we welcome submissions on all topics related to internet research in a broad sense. Find more information and deadlines on the Call for Papers page

When planning the conference trip and submission: don’t forget to check out the affiliated conference: Web_site_ Histories, taking place in Århus on Tuesday October 14th. More information and cfp here.